Dr. James K. Scarborough: “BitDegree is the groundwork for revolutionizing education at all levels”
According to Dr. James K. Scarborough, the face of education will change dramatically over the next 15 years, and video games will be the solution to the current issues facing education systems across the world. He believes there is a new era of ‘Internet Generation’ students graduating from high school who will simply not be able to adapt to the outdated teaching methods currently used in the majority of higher education institutions.
Dr. Scarborough is the newest member to join BitDegree’s fast-growing team of advisors ahead of its token sale beginning on December 1st, 2017. His enthusiasm for games, and how they can be applied to improving education, took him to Stanford University, where he earned a PhD in this field of study.
Dr. Scarborough was also the Director of Information Systems at Spectrum HoloByte, and was responsible for developing Civilization, Falcon Flight Simulator, plus other popular video games. Whilst working at Spectrum HoloByte, the Stanford PhD graduate was one of the key persons in importing the much-loved Tetris title from the Soviet Union to the West during the 1980s.
Regarding his decision to become part of the BitDegree advisory team, he explained: “BitDegree is the groundwork for revolutionizing education at all levels. The team’s approach to gamified learning will absolutely disrupt the current outdated classroom-based system. With the experience of everyone on the team, BitDegree will change every marketplace through the level of success it will achieve. I could not pass up this opportunity to join.”
Further advisors with experience in international technology, business, and education who have joined BitDegree will be announced in due course. In Q4 of 2017, Electronic Arts co-founder, Jeff Burton, and the founder of the revolutionary Steve JobsSchool, Maurice de Hond, joined the BitDegree advisory board.
Read on to find out his thoughts about how BitDegree will revolutionize education, the benefits of gamified learning, plus the changing landscape of education over the forthcoming years.
BitDegree: Why did you decide to join BitDegree?
Dr. James K. Scarborough: I joined BitDegree because I think it is the groundwork for revolutionizing education at all levels. For several years I have been waiting for a company like BitDegree to come along and transform the learning experience into how I think it should be in the future. I could not refuse the opportunity to be part of this revolution in education.
How will your experience of, and belief in gamified learning assist BitDegree in achieving its goals of revolutionizing education?
Games provide an excellent opportunity to solve the current issues facing education. It has been proven through research and anecdotally, that they can address the delivery of educational content, and how students consume that content. I believe that games have always pushed the boundaries of technology since day one. Just look at how consoles and game architecture have developed over the decades. I believe they can do the same for education.
What do you think of BitDegree’s reward-based approach to online learning?
I think that the BitDegree approach to education is nothing short of revolutionary. The team is breaking up ‘traditional’ education by showing that anyone can learn at any time, and they do not need to be in a classroom to do so. BitDegree is also providing companies with the opportunity to hire a wide variety of potential employees, because it will give students the necessary skills demanded by the current I.T. and tech labour market.
Do you believe BitDegree team has what it takes to succeed?
Absolutely! I believe with the skills of Jeff Burton and Danielius creating the platform architecture, Maurice de Hond designing the learning experience, plus me with my experience in gamification, education, and video game design, then BitDegree has every chance to succeed. Moreover, the market is ripe for what the team is offering. I believe that BitDegree will not just change one marketplace, it will change every marketplace through the level of success it will achieve.
What sparked your interest in gamified learning, and its application to the world of education?
This is a three-part answer. Firstly, my interest in gamified learning comes from some terrible learning experiences in classrooms. I am a lifelong learner, and I like learning for learning’s sake. I have had many classroom-based experiences where I have gone in thinking “I will learn this”, and it turned out totally opposite. Secondly, I have been a gamer all of my life. Since I have been gaming, I have noticed how games have become increasingly complex and difficult to play. Simultaneously, this has increased motivation amongst gamers because they want to achieve — or in terms of gamified learning — something new. Thirdly, the whole reason I went to Stanford to study for my PhD, which focused on video games, was because I was always told “games have nothing to do with education” or “it’s just a pastime”. With the help of others during my studies, we showed that games can enhance motivation amongst students, provide currency systems, and provide a level of engagement that even the best classrooms could merely aspire to.
How do you believe computer games can be used to increase productivity in the classroom, and how do you see the BitDegree platform raising its students’ productivity and knowledge?
Productivity in the classroom can be increased by looking at how games are structured. They have an introduction period in which the player is doing nothing but learning how to play. This is something that classrooms lack, because there is no training about how to extract the best from the classroom. Games have motivation systems in their underlying architecture in the form of episodes, and small missions. Therefore we have large and small-scale objectives that keep players returning. If the player loses interest in a game, then they go and play another part of it. If students lose interest in a class, then the chance to learn anything of value is over.
In your opinion, what are the psychological benefits of gamified learning for students? How does it contribute to their well-being?
Personalization is a big “feel-good factor” for gamers. You can choose your avatar or character, so the game treats the player as an individual. This is something that many teachers or instructors fail to do. Games also provide the player with a choice — for example, they can choose to go right into the forest, or left into the desert. This decision making contributes to a level of personal well-being and accomplishment, and it makes players want to return to the content. In terms of education, students do the homework and study, they put all of this into the final exam, and then that’s it — it’s over and they have finished. There is no long-lasting sense of motivation. Games, however, provide a level of engagement that keeps students motivated.
BitDegree focuses on preparing students with the necessary I.T. and tech skills to find jobs after their course of study. How do you think it is possible to apply gamification to studying academic fields such as law, economics, and linguistics?
The main issue with classroom-based learning is that it does not give students the chance to apply their knowledge to a real-world situation. If we use legal studies within the context of the current education system, then the student would go to their first trial ill-prepared for what comes next due to not having applied their studies practically. Meanwhile, a game could be a method for the student to apply what they have learnt at law school. For example, a game could be created in which one student is a defendant, the other is a prosecutor, and another who has acquired both skills is now learning to be a judge. Instead of a case taken from a textbook, we could have a situation in which there is a live simulation, and the judge decides who is the winner and who is the loser. Economics is another terrific example, because many games have inbuilt currency systems and economies. Therefore, students can study economics within the framework of the game. This provides students with a terrific chance to learn by doing, which is something that classrooms do not give.
What do you view as the main flaws in current education systems across the world at present?
Most learning that goes on is very theoretical and there is very little practical application. In terms of games, players have to go through end-to-end learning from the very beginning, to applying all of the skills they picked up to complete the final level. This is what classrooms are missing, because whilst the knowledge is learnt, it is not applied. Students sit and listen, they take an exam at the end, then everything is forgotten once they have taken it. Games have done very well with long and short-term motivation systems, and these can be applied to education to make it more interesting and sustainable over the long term.
What are your predictions for education within the next 15 years?
I predict that the face of education will be changed dramatically. The reason being that there is a new generation of learners coming up now from high school and through to college will simply not understand learning in its current state. They have been using the Internet since they were born, and have been playing games since they were very young. Therefore gamified learning makes more sense to them.